dressmaking skills have changed

Advice needed. I've always sewn , it just comes naturally to me but I never finished any if the courses I did. I used to run a small soft furnishing company but didn't finish the course in that either as one of my children became very ill. Anyway. I want to be able to do professional alterations as I slowly retire from teaching but don't know what course to take. Should I do a middle level dressmaking course? A specialist alterations course? Online or evening classes? I'm just not sure what to do ? All advice welcome please.

Stone Fabrics in Totnes are wonderful, and do mail order.
What has really helped me was to do a 2 day course on making a block to my body measurements. Using this, I've made my own patterns which have worked really well. What used to get me down was using patterns that didn't fit me, even though they were the right size.
As well as having some nice new outfits, it's an interesting puzzle to create the pattern.
If the cost of the fabric puts you off, you can get cheap double duvet covers from primark (ot just calico) and make a test piece first.

I've been dressmaking since my teens, still going strong but I don't like making soft furnishings, not even curtains. I use online sites for sampling and buying but the one I've used most of my life is Croft Mill in Lancs. They are very good about samples and I love the witty way in which they describe some of their fabrics.

As a dresmaker Gran its nice to have GDs. the only thing I sew for my GS is to shorten his Karate jacket mostly the sleeves which I then have to let out again 6 months later.
Its very strong fabric and nowadays I find the perfect needle for any fabric you are using. When I started there was only the one size.
I used to love the Haberdashery at JL and the choice of fabric.
We have here on the continent a fabric market based in Holland with about 30 stands selling all known materials and it stations itself in all the main cities including 10 in Germany.
DD2 goes and I sometimes go went with her. The stall holders have mini skirts or bags, or little dresses hanging up decorating their stall and the girls and young wowmen can buy their pattern and buy fabric to make it already cut out if you want. They sell like hot cakes and there is a terrific atmosphere.
There are women buying fleece who have a whole sportsteam to sew for. There are stalls selling stuff for those people who like to do pageants from the middle ages. They can buy eveything to go with the sacking and velvet which they buy metres amd metres of it.
Come the end of the day(Saturdays) the market closes up and departs till 6 months later when they are in the area again.
When you are there you feel as if you are part of a world where sewing is normal not some kind of quaint pasttime nobody needs anymore.

Hi mimiro all the way over there Stateside.

My great grandfather was a Naval tailor and my grandmother and her sisters were tailoresses. As the first grandchild in the family I had a handmade wardrobe fit for a princess!
I remember when maxi coats came in my gran made me a beautiful coat using a complicated Butterick pattern from a heavy wool mix curtain she had during the war(very Scarlett O'Hara!) It was so beautiful.
My mother was a window dresser and her cousin a textile designer so clothes and design have always played a large part in our family. My sister studied fashion at college and is a very skilled seamstress.
I however cannot figure out a sewing machine at all! I can hand sew, particularly embroidery, dolls clothes and miniatures. My three sons had the most fashionably dressed Action Men!

Ethel pop into Durham. We've got Rita down the market and a weird and wonderful shop down a flight of stone steps next to the Body Shop. Lots of ends of rolls and stuff the students use for fancy dress.

I used to sew a lot but material is too expensive, now I just stick to repairs and hems etc

stateside here
you ladies have no idea how lucky you are.
i have been a seamstress for 51 years.
i live in a place where the nearest fabric/notions shop is 30 + miles away(one of many reasons i hate this area)
5 generations of professional and amatuer dressmakers.
mom owned a fabric shop.
spent my toddler days in petticoats and gingham dresses,
made my first full on outfit skirt petticoat blouse and cape when i was 9.
why i made it in yellow and yellow plaids i have no idea.(not a good color fo me)
but i can see it in my mind clear as day.moved on to helping mom with entire wedding partys,draperies.eventually found my niche doing costumes and very custom(bespoke) leather clothing,motorcycle gear,upholstery.
i miss it something terrible.

My love affair with sewing has really been revived since I retired. Actually, the real revival was when my granddaughter was born two years ago - at last a little girl to sew for again! And then I discovered all the independent pattern designers online who sell their patterns as PDF instant downloads. Oh my, if only these had been around years ago! But I am making the most of them now. The beauty of these is that you don't have to worry about damaging the pattern because if you do, you can just print it out again! And of course, you don't have to wait for them (I never did have much patience )
I absolutely love to sew little things - they are so much easier to manage than adult clothing . My dining room has been taken over, with cutting mats and two machines (sewing machine and overlocker) permanently in place on the table, and storage furniture bought especially for all the sewing stuff I seem to have so quickly accumulated.
Yes, it can be expensive, but it's such a rewarding hobby and my DD is the envy of many friends. She also gets a huge kick out of being asked by complete strangers where she got 'that beautiful dress/romper/coat' etc.
HildaW I too buy fabric from Minerva and from Doughties, among others. I'm also lucky to have a fabulous shop, Exeter Fabric Centre, within an hour's drive - I always stock up to make the trip worthwhile .

The site Minerva has been fine for me. You can ask for samples and they have an amazing choice of patterns - as do John Lewis but JL in stores is not what it was....their haberdashery used to be amazing but its becoming quite limited now.. Here is Herefordshire we are lucky with a company called Doughties who have a quaint fabric shop in Hereford and an enormous warehouse for quilters near the railway station....they do mail order ....but I must admit I prefer to fondle before I buy. My daughter uses a site called Fabricland (shes very frugal)....you can look it up on line but you have to phone to order which is a bit old fashioned!

Can't even thread a needle ☹️
And I have tried!!!

I made my first dress- a sundress at school when I was 14. We sewed by hand then. Later I made my own school uniform dresses because my mother was hopeless at it. The waist was in the wrong place and the sleeves too tight.
I have never stopped since and once I joined a tailoring course at nightschool and invested in some grey csshmere for a jacket. I never would have got it finished as in class I sat around waiting for the teacher to come to me and show me the next step. I lined it like tailors do, but in the end stopped going and finished it off myself at home.
I found jackets saved most money and sometimes made trousers or skirts to match.
I made DD2s wedding outfit, (not white) and made a jacket out of raspberry coloured shantung over a sleeveless dress in mixed dark greens and blues. As she is darkhaired she looked lovely with roses to match the jacket.
She sews as well now for her two girls but DD1 can't sew a button on.
Getting up to date I sew trousers now and occasionally tee shirts with a half sleeve. I find the winter here in S Germany too cold for jeans and sew lightweight tweed trousers in grey or brown which fit well with ankle boots.
We have a fabric outlet where you can get remnants from Boss and similar.
AS a hobby it is perfect, creative, saves money and gets compliments. I once made a bright pink frock-coat for a school play with gold buttons on. The young actor came for a fitting and I loved it seeing him on the stage. I was thanked with a bouquet of flowers and a round of applause.

I shall look out for people sending samples Varian. Am in the UK at the moment so on the look out for places to go.

I have bought fabric online from companies which will send samples (usually free up to a certain number). This means you can be sure about the colour and feel before you buy. There is a huge selection which is difficult to find in the shops.

There are still some markets which have good haberdashery and fabric stalls. St Nicholas market in Bristol used to be good, but I haven't been there for quite a while.

When we were young sewing clothes, curtains and loose covers was done, even by people who didn't enjoy it, in order to save money. Now I suspect it is almost always just for those who really enjoy the chance to be creative because so much is made by badly-paid people in the far east that it actually costs more to sew your own things.

Where do you buy your dress fabrics from - and also patterns? I am nervous buying online as I like to feel any fabric before I buy - why I don't buy clothes online either.
Got a nice bargain in Dunelm this week for new bedroom curtains - exactly the right shade of print and reduced to £5 a metre.

What a lovely thread this is

Stansgran....just see your entry....I set my ironing board up downstairs....an even longer trip! And oh the number of cold cups of tea that never get drunk!

Avid sewer here. Have had great fun sewing proper frocks of late as we do a bit of social dancing. Not the 'Strictly' stuff but proper dresses with fuller skirts. Had great fun making up a reprint of a 50s style dress. We also do a bit of a fancy dress once a year so I get quite carried away.

Its helped by the real treat of now having a sewing room - there is a spare bed in there somewhere....but you can rarely see it! Also in this area we have a really quirky charity shop that sells all things haberdashery and fabric that people no longer need. You never know what's going to come in....so I just pop in and buy any larger lengths of decent stuff ....and usually find a use for it....or just re-donate it.

I've rediscovered the joy of sewing in my retirement.
I wanted some new curtains for the sitting room & the fabric I liked was so expensive that I decided to make them myself rather than get them made.
One thing that makes a difference is that now DCs no longer live at home, I can have my machine permanently set up on a table upstairs, so there isn't the constant faff of getting the machine out and putting it away again.

A friend of mine used to work as a children's nurse. She said that she had visited a children's home recently and it was quite an eye-opener.

Whereas in her day, they would shorten sleeves of dresses or blouses where the elbows had worn through by hemming them and crocheting a border and sewing it on, "these days" they just cut the sleeve off!

I used to sew, but I was never very good, and I haven't done any for ages. I can't imagine not knowing how to, though. Neither of my DILs have the slightest idea. My three boys got taught more sewing than them!

Ah memories, *Grannyknot", standing on the table! My mum made me a ballet tutu once with layers of net. She tried it on me, not realising she had left in a row of pins. The insides of my thighs were shredded to pieces. I was not amused!

This thread has really inspired me.

The argument about sewing something from scratch or buying cheaply could be said about knitting too. I knit for relaxation, and my family have cottoned on to it as an excellent choice for gifts, so I get really lovely expensive wools and knitting accessories for birthdays etc. So no one thinks of it as an "expensive hobby".

Re sewing, my gran was a seamstress, I have strong memories in particular about how fussy she was about getting dress hems straight, with me on the table, and her with one of those clamps that measured hems, having to turn around an inch at a time. To this day I can't cope with a badly finished hem - and there are plenty of those!

Dressmaking was a wonderful skill. I've written before about how my grandmother was the town's "invisible mender" - her skills known far and wide as people brought clothes for mending, often back then with cigarette burn holes in gossamer dresses or sports jackets.

This thread (excuse the pun) has really brought back lovely memories for me.

I am convinced that sewing is the best therapy ever. It also helps weight watching as you can't eat and sew and I make myself get up and walk to another room to iron so my knees keep moving.

I've been having similar conversations with DH about taking up sewing in my retirement. It's the same old objections - big initial outlay, expensive hobby when one can walk into a shop and take something cheaper (more fashionable?) off the peg, what if it becomes a five minute wonder etc. I think I will have to use some of your comments on the health and relaxation benefits to try and convince him!